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Publication:Ogden Standard-Examiner; Date:December 23, 2006; Section:Religion; Page Number:7B
Youth finds a place at Ogden Christian FellowshipBY KELLY BINGHAM Standard-Examiner correspondentOGDEN – Most garages are used to tune up cars, but the 2nd Street Garage in Ogden is used to tune up souls. The 2nd Street Garage has been the recreation and youth center for Ogden Christian Fellowship, 789 Second Street, for four or five years now, said worship leader Mark Maxson. “This had been a very traditional sanctuary when we first got ahold of it and had been used for Sunday services. We wanted to kind of dumb it down and make it look like a garage,” he said. The garage concept was the idea of the youth group. Using donated materials, hubcaps and street signs, the teens decorated the walls. They used an actual garage door for the stage backdrop and painted a large mural of trees, angels and hell on the back wall. “Every Tuesday night at 7, about 25 to 40 kids meet here,” Maxson said. “It’s all interfaith. We even have kids that don’t attend any church coming here.” The Garage is used for concerts and other social events. About 200 people attended a recent Friday-night CD-release party for local Christian singer/songwriter and Fellowship member Wendy Jepsen, who was celebrating her latest album, “Song of the Bride” (available at www.wendyjepsen.com). The Garage will also be the stage for a free 7 p.m. Christmas Eve production. “‘The Christmas Shoes’ is a musical based on a popular Christmas song,” Jepsen said. “It’s about a man who has his priority all wrong, and he meets a little boy in a store on Christmas Eve who wants to buy a pair of shoes for his mother who is dying. “The story shows the contrast between a man whose family is falling apart in spite of having everything money can buy, and the boy whose family is bound together in the love of God in spite of their poverty and the upcoming loss of his mother.” The cast and choir participating in the musical are members of Ogden Christian Fellowship. The Garage also books live Christian rock and worship groups to perform mostly for people ages 2 to 52. “Last summer, we had three or four bands in. Not just local bands either; we had some breaking indie-rock Christian bands,” Maxson said. “A lot of these concerts had little kids on the front row just bopping along.” Bill Waldrop’s local Christian band, “3:16”, played The Garage over the summer. “This is a really good place to play,” Waldrop said. “We’ve played some larger venues, but the sound here is really good. The people who put this together are just wonderful. There’s always a good turnout here. Other places we go are hit and miss sometimes.” Maxson sees The Garage as a Friday-night alternative to clubs saturated in sex and alcohol. “Our goal is for Christians and other people to have a cool place to go where there won’t be any unsavory behavior,” he said. “The Garage is not a lounge, it’s not a bar, it’s not a club – it’s a place with a good Christian atmosphere that’s family-oriented. You go to some clubs and as soon as you get there, the band starts dropping F-bombs. People don’t pay money to hear that.” Funding for The Garage comes from Ogden Christian Fellowship and private donations. The venue doesn’t generally charge admission, so the bands that play take a leap of faith, believing they will be compensated in some other way. “Our pastor knew the Angie Rees Band out of Phoenix. He contacted them to come play our room. They agreed because they would be coming through here anyway,” Maxson said. “We charged a $3 admission so we were able to pay them a little. Our families fed them and put the band up for the night.” Maxson hopes the concerts and other activities at The 2nd Street Garage will draw a larger interfaith crowd and raise community awareness of Ogden Christian Fellowship. “The Garage is an outreach ministry, sure,” he said. “The issue is that a lot of our neighbors here don’t know what The Garage is. There are so many people in our area that are unchurched. I know a lot of people think that most people go to the (LDS) ward and the rest all go to places like Ogden Fellowship, but the numbers say different. There are a lot of people in this area that just don’t go anywhere.” Maxson said he wants The Garage to be a place where people can get their spiritual alignment checked or souls jump-stated, but doesn’t see it supplanting church or becoming “Club Salvation.” “There are churches like that in Salt Lake that looks like a disco,” he said. “They have lasers and smoke. For some people, that does it for them. “But you don’t want to put flash over substance. Nothing will replace being in church on Sunday morning.” Maxson has big plans for The Garage. “I would like to have music in here every Friday and Saturday. Either one or the other or both would be great,” he said. “I would like to have it open during the week for kids to come after school ,do their homework, hang out and play games. This is such an excellent facility.” |